Tom Powers: NHL lockout talk is bad timing for Wild

An NHL lockout could kill much of the interest the Wild generated with their blockbuster offseason signings of top free agents Ryan Suter, left, and Zach Parise. (Getty Images: Hannah Foslien)

The Wild just can't win. They finally show signs of life during this offseason and now it looks as if a lockout is going to slam the lid back down on the coffin.

Any other year and the Wild would be in clover. They made the two huge free-agent signings during the offseason, thereby creating a hockey buzz not heard in these parts in a long time. A couple of highly touted young players are on the way. And if everything had gone as planned, they'd be playing in an eight-team division featuring, among others, old Norris foes Chicago, Detroit and St. Louis. Potential blood rivals Dallas and Winnipeg were in there, too.

It was going to be great. Eleven seasons into their existence, the Minnesota Wild haven't developed one decent rivalry. But that was about to change. With realignment came a new (old) playoff format of one playing four and two playing three in the division. Then the winners square off. You want rivalries? Stand back and watch when that playoff format kicks in.

The realignment was approved by the league last December and torpedoed by the players association a month later. That's when we all should have realized that there were big-time problems on the horizon. Even though the new format was good for everybody -- less travel, bigger crowds, higher ratings and old-time rivalries -- the players came to the conclusion that they couldn't give up a perfectly good bargaining chip.

The league wants realignment? Not so fast. Let's negotiate. So realignment got put on hold.

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Just like it appears the whole season is about to be put on hold. Here we are, less than a month before the current collective bargaining agreement expires and, as both sides admit, little progress has been made.

In a nutshell: The owners want the players to take a smaller piece of the revenue pie. The players, obviously, say no thanks. Blah, blah. Who cares? All these lockouts/strikes look the same. Just know that no matter how it gets resolved, ticket prices are not going down.

This wasn't supposed to happen. Remember that it wasn't so long ago, 2004-2005, that an entire NHL season was wiped out in a labor dispute, an occurrence that made history among North American professional leagues. Apparently, no one learned anything from that.

Worse, it's different this time. There was a hidden agenda lurking throughout that lost lockout year. The powers that be knew that when play resumed, big changes were in the offing. The NHL would feature an entirely new look designed to lure back even the casual American fan.

The "New NHL'' featured overtime shootouts and legal passes all the way to the far blue line. The neutral zone became smaller, creating more attack space in the offensive zones. Goalies were prohibited from leaving their creases to chase pucks and slow down play. And referees were instructed to call even the slightest hooking, holding or obstruction.

All this and more was designed to create a faster, higher-scoring, more exciting game. It was the golden carrot dangled in front of the public. That and the promise that the NHL finally was financially secure and able to maintain competitive balance for years to come. That last part turned out to be a lie.

Still, it worked as people came back in 2005. Things seemed to be going well, too. Look at the size of the contracts being dished out these days. Yet here we are again on the verge of disaster. Only this time, there's no way to re-jigger the game to create more fan appeal when the labor strife ends. What's left to do to create more offense? Play four on four all the time?

It also seems that a lockout could prove fatal to several struggling franchises, particularly in the south. The millions saved in salary givebacks probably won't counter a long-term plunge in attendance. In some markets, out of sight and out of mind equals out of existence. The league might end up having to take over several failing teams.

Maybe there won't be a lockout. But from everything I've seen, it looks as if the start of the season at least will be delayed. Hey, but some day down the road there will be realignment. That's the only carrot left to dangle.